As some of you already know…I have a secret. I sleep around. Around the house, that is. I’ve slept in the guest room, in the kids’ beds, on the couch, and even on the floor. I rarely sleep in the master bedroom, because Ben and I are both magnetic and during the night the kids migrate to our bed and we end up a party of 5. If I start out in the guest room I usually end up with 1 or 2 kids but at least 1 ends up with Ben. I place the blame for this squarely on his shoulders. In Morocco, the kids sleep with the parents indefinitely. Under those circumstances, I don’t know how they ever have more kids! I mean really, where am I supposed to sleep? In the 2 square feet of blank space above Aliya’s head? Not to mention the fact that Norah has fallen out of bed about 10 times. Oh well…a family that sleeps together goes to the chiropractor together.
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A few cute sleeping pics of Adlani:
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For 6 months, I shuddered every time I looked at the April 14th entry on my calendar…”Blood Drive.” I have blood issues. I’m pretty sure it started when I was about 4 or 5 and my stepfather fell off a ladder with a storm window and just about cut his hand off. We were home alone and I remember him looking through the window in the front door, begging for me to let him in. I thought he was playing a game and so he ended up running in through the garage and up the stairs, splattering blood on the walls along the way. I remember him talking on the phone to the pre-911 emergency service and receiving instructions to remove his belt and wrap it around his arm. He went off in an ambulance and I stayed home with a neighbor.

When I was about 13 I fainted in the doctor’s office after the nurse who was drawing my blood said “oops”. I spent 2 days in the hospital after that episode, had a CAT scan, and narrowly missed a spinal tap. I also fainted at school after my finger got pinched between 2 desks and a blood blister appeared, and at the grocery store when the deli clerk cut her hand on the meat slicer.

Since then I have had 3 babies and lots of blood tests for thyroid levels, so I thought our office blood drive might be the perfect opportunity for me to conquer my fear among friends. I DID IT!! For any of you who are afraid to give blood, it was really no big deal. I didn’t look at my bag-o-blood, but I accidentally saw one of my coworkers’ and even that didn’t send me crashing to the floor. The most painful part of the whole thing was sitting in a broom closet answering questions about my health history and habits that might make me ineligible to give blood. It was all worth it though, when the nice lady asked me if I had ever had sex with anyone who was born or had lived in Africa. She was visibly startled when I answered, “At least twice a week since 1998.”

5 million people per year receive blood transfusions…your blood can save a life! Plus you get guilt-free cookies! Just do it!!!

http://www.givelife.org/
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For about a year, Norah has been battling eczema. It started out with a few little benign-looking spots here and there, and it has gotten a lot worse this winter. At the end of February she woke up with her legs beet-red like a bad sunburn and her chest and stomach covered with tiny red bumps. The next day her back and arms had the red bumps as well, and her legs were all blotchy. We tried so many products and nothing really helped. To identify the trigger we changed the type of pajamas she wore, the bath soap we used, and witheld certain foods. We weren’t able to get rid of it entirely, but a couple of weeks ago I found Aveeno Eczema Care lotion. IT WORKS!!! Now she has just a few small patches – very manageable. I highly recommend this lotion!!

A couple of weeks ago (Monday), Norah was showing signs of conjunctivitis (pink eye) so I took her to the doctor. He said she had allergies. The next day I found out that 3 other kids at her day care had conjunctivitis. The rule for day care is that the child has to have the magic eye ointment for 24 hours before they can return. I called the pediatrician and was told by the nurse that they would not prescribe the ointment for Norah. I told her that several of the other kids used the same pediatric practice and were able to get the ointment. Their answer was still NO! So Norah and I settled in at home for the duration. She still had it on Friday so I called the pediatrician and the answer was STILL NO!!! Luckily it cleared up over the weekend…unluckily (Is that a word?) I ended up with conjunctivitis. I haven’t had it since junior high and it SUCKS! BUT…I bought an over-the-counter remedy at Walgreens that really helps! It still sucks but at least it sucks a little bit less.

Speaking of eyes…I’ve somehow lost my bottle of Arbonne Eye Cream. This is the potion I used on one eye for two weeks to see if there was a difference. After the two week trial period there was an obvious difference between the treated and untreated eyes, and only one person chose the wrong eye in the unofficial test. I REALLY need to find it or shell out another $45, or I’ll have to live with one wrinkly eye and one less-wrinkly eye forever. Maybe it will turn up during the ongoing decluttering.

It was such a beautiful day today that I (went temporarily insane and) took the kids down to the marathon route to cheer on our friend Marla, who ran in support of Children’s Hospital. I freely admit that I have never in my life run a 10-minute mile. Today, Marla ran more than 26 10-minute miles to finish the Boston Marathon for the Miles for Miracles team and her patient partner, Samantha. When I turned the TV on this morning to see what was happening at the starting line, the winner in the wheelchair division was just crossing the finish line and Aliya said, “Aw…I guess Marla didn’t win.” She’s still a winner to us!! Go Marla!!!

In the picture above, Marla is the one with the lampost jutting out of the top of her head.
https://www.mwareinc.com/events/web/profiles/?EventID=112&ProfileID=GM0051

Here she is, running by us so fast you can barely spot her!!!

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I had a parent-teacher conference for Adlani this week and he has apparently made great strides since the beginning of the school year. We need to work on his writing ability…he hasn’t mastered holding a pencil yet and hasn’t chosen a dominant hand. He’s very good at building things though, so it’s not a question of motor skills. While I was talking to the teacher he completely filled the triangle frame with tiles. The teacher said she had never seen any of the kids do it.
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Today I was the mystery reader for Adlani’s class. I read “Somebody and the Three Blairs” and “Prince Cinders”. The kids loved the books, although I almost completely lost it when they all started shouting out comments about the big hairy monkey’s butt. The teacher and I were hysterical. Aliya is going to be the mystery reader on June 2nd for Adlani’s current class and the Spanish immersion class he’ll be in next year. She’s already practicing.

I talked to Adlani’s teacher and the director about kindergarten readiness. I’m sure you all know that I’ve been struggling with whether to hold him back or not. I learned today that if his teacher (next year) strongly feels that he should be held back, he can stay at BLOCKS for another year, but it won’t be my decision. If she thinks he’s ready for kindergarten and I disagree, he’ll have to go to Next Generation or another private school. It actually feels good to have the decision taken out of my hands and into more qualified hands. My impression today was that they don’t currently see any delays that would require him to be held back.
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